Register based fertility research

What can we learn about today’s fertility in Europe from registers?

How can we increase accessibility of register data across Europe?

Register and other administrative data are core data sources of demographic and sociological research on contemporary fertility trends and patterns. Currently the use of register data for the purposes of fertility research remains largely focused on the Nordic countries, but these data are becoming increasingly accessible to researchers across Europe.

The EAPS Working Group on Register-Based Fertility Research aims at supporting this momentum of change, that is facilitating the use of existing and emerging register data sources for the purpose of studying fertility. Thereby the working group aims at contributing to high-quality and up-to-date research on fertility trends and patterns particularly in the context of contemporary Europe. It aims at providing a platform for discussing fertility research based on register and other administrative data and to facilitate networking opportunities among register data users, as well as between users and those interested in these data. It also offers a forum for discussing issues related to availability and challenges with access and content of these data. The group promotes cross-country and cross-regional analysis, and aims at including researchers from different career stages. The group activities are supported by the European Association for Population Studies (EAPS) and the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR).

The working group meets annually. The next meeting will be on December 13, 2021. If you are interested in being part of this working group, please send an email to nisen@demogr.mpg.de

Comparative research projects within the working group

Currently, the working group provides the platform for a number of ongoing or planned comparative fertility research projects listed below, which are based on register or register-like data. The respective project leader and her/his contact information is mentioned next to the project. These projects fall under two broad themes 1) Investigation of fertility trends and patterns across and within countries in Europe, and 2) Investigation of fertility trends and patterns across countries in Europe.